New air rifle purchases at Gunroom, may have the option of an extended warranty to 3 years. This includes our main agencies, Daystate, Brocock, Kral, and Weihrauch, and also includes air rifles such as AirForce, Marauder, Sam Yang, Eun Jin and Air Arms that are purchased on what is commonly called, the “grey” market: that is we are buying directly from a Wholesaler in the USA.

Daystate Red Wolf PCP Air Rifle

There is a Caveat, and that is we ONLY warranty, Factory or Extended warranties of air rifles sold by Gunroom. There are exceptions, and these apply to Weihrauch where we will do the factory warranty of 12 months on any Weihrauch, regardless whether we sold it or not. All other air rifles have to have originated from Gunroom, such as imports of Brocock, Daystate etc., that may have been on-sold to a Dealer. In a nutshell, we warranty ALL of our imports.

What is covered on a spring air rifle Extended Warranty?

On a spring air rifle, such things as a broken spring, busted seal or trigger issue is all covered. All you need do is call Rob at Gunroom, and he will send you a Booking in Form, that you fill in and return by email. You will then be advised to send the action and barrel, (everything except the scope and stock) to us and we will do the repair at no cost of parts or labour. The gun will then be tested and returned to you at your cost using the cheapest freight we can find.

Weihrauch HW77KSE Spring Air Rifle

You need to understand that the air rifle will be repaired to shoot as close to the default speed as possible. It will NOT be tuned or accurised, just repaired to shoot safely and at the design speed. This warranty is good for 3 years providing your purchase has qualified you for an extended warranty. If you have purchased your air rifle with no pellet selection test, then you will not be offered an Extended Warranty period.

Extended Warranty conditions on a PCP air rifle.

PCP air rifles require more TLC than the average spring powered air rifle as they are generally more complex and require some maintenance. General issues we find with PCP air rifles are air leaks, corrosion issues and factory settings dropping out for one reason or another. This issue applies to all models of PCPs, from Brococks through the high-end Daystate PCPs.

Before you go charging off an send us your PCP under warranty, please call first because, in a large percentage of the time, we can affect a repair over the phone. In the event that this cannot be done or you doubt your ability to make any adjustment or repair, please refer the matter to us.

Warranty issues on a PCP include air leaks, faulty triggers, loss of power or general inaccuracy that may have developed. Providing you haven’t dicked about with the gun, please contact us and arrange for me to look at it and do the repair.

Compatto Cut-away showing internals.

If you have been “at it” to some degree, all is not lost as long as I am told what you have done, I will in all probability still cover it by warranty. Just make sure you send ALL the parts if you have disassembled the gun.

The timeframe for warranty and repairs.

During the first 16 months that I have been in Brisbane, air rifle repairs have overwhelmed me, many of which were just sent in without prior notice. As I was on my own during this time period, I struggled to match the demand, but that has now changed with the addition of Rob Marx joining Gunroom as a partner.

Further to this, Lewis Reinhold who many of you would remember from times gone by is now doing the spring air rifle repairs. I am now only doing PCP repairs of air rifles that we have sold or those belonging to established customers.

All warranty work and repairs are now booked in and done in a ‘first come, first served’ basis, with the intent of minimising the time the air rifles are in our care. Spare parts are of course an issue and that is something beyond our control. With spring air rifles, we do carry a large range of Maccari and Vortek seals, springs and service kits to suit most airguns.

In summarisation guys, I am posting another article shortly describing what maintenance can be done at home on your own air rifle. Many of you are getting this wrong and dosing your springers with oil that leads to ‘dieseling’ and the early destruction of the piston seal. In PCPs I am seeing quite a few homegrown repairs coming in and quite a number of these guns with corrosion issues leading to an early retirement of the air rifle.

An Air Rifle is an A-Class weapon in Australia and what model you can buy varies from State to State, so be warned.

Do your research online to gauge whether the air rifle you have in mind is suitable for the tasks ahead, this applies especially to what calibre you select. Then I seriously suggest you choose a dealer that KNOWS air rifles and is not just an agent that sells them. Get this part wrong and should you require a warranty, you will find yourself out of pocket at worst or inconvenienced bigtime at best.

This will negatively impact on your assessment of the rifle; a fact that is probably not warranted. Furthermore, without the experience and passion for air rifles, the dealer is unlikely to be able to offer advice about your intended airgun any further than the price – that’s a bit hard I know, but from what I hear it is pretty accurate.

Selecting your Air Rifle.

In a nutshell, you have to choose between a spring powered air rifle or a PCP air rifle. You then must select whether you want to be competitive or hunt with it, this again narrows down the field that you must choose from. Lastly, the budget, yup, how much do you intend to spend will ultimately play a significant role in your choice of air rifle.

Here’s a Tip: Don’t buy cheap and PLEASE choose from a respected manufacturer.

Scopes online.

Getting the correct scope for your air rifle is another key component that many get wrong; as most gun dealers have little experience with an air rifle, that in turn often leads to incorrect matching with your air rifle. Talk to someone who ONLY deals in air rifles and the scopes that work with them, namely Hawke and MTC Scopes, in other words, you can talk to us at Gunroom.

Test before you buy.

If you are looking at buying online, then being able to test an air rifle prior to parting with your money will seem an impossible ‘ask’. Well, not so. If you live close to Brisbane, you can come to my shop and actually test fire the gun of your choice prior to paying for it. If you can only get here on a weekend, no bigee, just talk to me and when can schedule you to test the air rifle of your choice.

“But I live inter-state” I can just hear some of you saying. Well, in that case, I will shoot your air gun for you and provide you with a Pellet Selection Test with Target results, chronograph results and extended warranty if you want it. This testing is now an extra cost due to time restraints here. Try getting all that from your local gun dealer. I can do it because ALL I deal with is air rifles, though I can buy in any type of rifle or handgun with an ‘order-in’ procedure.

My aim is to promote the air rifle sport, be it in hunting, competition or just plinking for fun, this is a great sport and basically untapped here in Australia.

The Brocock Bantam Sniper MKII (a Giant Killer…)

We import the following air rifles:

AirForce

Air Arms

Benjamin

Brocock

Daystate

Kral

SamYang

and we are local agents for Weihrauch.

Second-hand airguns.

Like most gun dealers, we get trade-ins by way of old, cheap and nasty junk airguns that are then trashed. However, sometimes we actually get in a good air gun, and if you are lucky enough to buy one after it has been tested, you should save yourself some money. Of the brands that I feel offer good value for money, I would include but not limit them to these great brands in alphabetical order:

I won’t list the crap guns here for want of legal action, plus the list is huge.

There are some other good air rifles out there and I haven’t included them due to poor parts supply, limited tuning accessories and a closed dealer network (i.e., they won’t supply me parts or drawings etc., so I don’t work on them).

Tip: Don’t make the mistake of buying some piece of crap with the desire to get it fixed up, because that won’t happen 9 times out of 10. Crap is crap even when you paint it pink. We will no longer work on old guns as the parts are scarce, expensive, and ultimately cost more than the gun is worth with labour involved: and then when they are not accurate after fitting new springs and seals, the customer sometimes squeals.

There is a DIFFERENCE between getting your gun REBUILT and getting it TUNED, and I don’t mean the spelling.

Gunroom Store Front, Sumner, Brisbane

Air Rifle Pellet Selection.

With every Air Rifle I sell, I can do a Pellet Selection Test on it. This is NOT a tune-up, it is a test procedure that will let me know what pellets perform the best in the air rifle being tested. I pass this information onto the customer who can then purchase pellets with the knowledge that they will perform well in his/her air rifle. Get this wrong and your negative experience will likely be incorrectly directed to the gun and/or the dealer that sold it to you.

Weihrauch HW100 On An ACZ Stock

Note: Every air rifle is UNIQUE, so do not expect to use the same pellets as your mate who has the same model gun.

Testing these air rifles prior to delivery is a time-consuming process, even with the SIUS Target System that I use. In the past, this has caused many issues with delays and as I have identified the bottlenecks, I think my new software will speed up this process.

Testing a Budget Air Rifle.

Air Rifles costing $500 or less will have the following test if you want it at a cost of $50:

Zero-in the air rifle and put around 30 shots down range to “set” the spring and overcome any dieseling caused by excessive lubrication left over from manufacturing.

Fire 6 or more pellet types, including JSB and H&N pellets, in groups of 3 to ascertain the best-suited pellet. This test is not recorded, it is shown on the screen as the ‘Outer Diameter of the group’.

Taking the best performing pellet, I then test fire 6 shots and record the following:

Grouping

Highest Speed in Fps

Lowest Speed in Fps

Average Speed in Fps

Extreme Spread

Standard Deviation

Energy in Ft-Lbs

Energy in Joules

This information in a PDF File together with a scanned target generated by SIUS software will get sent with the air rifle.

Should the gun not perform satisfactorily, then it is pulled down and a new factory spring or one from Vortek is retrofitted. I will work on the gun until it is within what I deem the performance base is for that air rifle. This is quite often the cause of delays.

Below is the budget-priced Weihrauch HW30s, one of the best performing air rifles under $500 that is very tune-able using a Vortek Kit.

Weihrauch HW30s

Testing Performance Air Rifles

Air Rifles costing $501 upwards; this applies to springers and PCPs. The following test is optional at a cost of $90:

The rifle is zeroed-in using around 50 shots to set the spring (higher power levels than sub $500 guns), adjust the scope, check for leaks (in a PCP) and develop a feel for the gun.

Then 6 pellet types, made up of JSB and H&N Pellets, are selected and fired in sets of 6 shots, giving me 6 Sets of information as below:

Grouping

Highest Speed in Fps

Lowest Speed in Fps

Average Speed in Fps

Extreme Spread

Standard Deviation

Energy in Ft-Lbs

Energy in Joules

This information is sent out with the gun, except this time you get a 6 Pellet test and graphs in one file. This will allow you to compare the pellets with one another using the graph set supplied. You also get 6 scans of the target as provided by the SIUS Software.

SIUS Air Rifle Target Result

Should the airgun on test fall below what I would accept, then I will fix it, simple. As the majority of air rifles in this price range are PCPs, the expected performance is higher than spring air rifles and budget priced airguns. Bottom line: you will get a good performing air rifle if you buy it from Gunroom.

Below is a fully adjustable HW100 on a Cerakoted ACZ Stock, full Mapped Regulator, FX Air Cylinder, Lothar Walther barrel prior to being accessorized with air stripper etc., for the owner.

Weihrauch HW100 On An ACZ Stock With Fx Cylinder

Your Air Rifle Purchase Summary.

This new test procedure is current as of January 1, 2019, and supersedes earlier testing regimes as it employs new software and hardwired PCs to reduce double handling. I am doing my best here to provide you, the customer, with a timely and trouble-free buying experience and second to none after sales service, together with a great air rifle.

At the time of editing this, January 6, 2019, we are having trouble keeping abreast with the workload. So please take this into consideration when calling either Rob or me as doing so during working hours, only escalates delays. Best time to call in after 6:30 EST.

Brocock Commander PCP Air Rifle

You will now get a 3 Year Warranty on ALL new PCP air rifle purchases that have been tested. Purchasers who buy a PCP Air Rifle from Gunroom will also get a 3 Year Service Warranty with their new air rifle purchase, does your local gun dealer offer you this?

I must answer questions on filling options for PCP air rifles on a weekly basis other than when actually selling a PCP such as the Weihrauch HW100, Cometa Lynx or AirForce Condor. You have several options to choose from as I have listed here. I will give my opinion on each option though some may choose to disagree to a point, but that’s life and what I have found here works for me.

High Pressure Compressors.

A High Pressure Pump rated at 3,000 psi (200 Bar) is the MINIMUM requirement to fill a PCP from a compressor. A garage compressor is only rated to 220 psi (15 Bar) or thereabouts, depending on quality so forget about that. To get to 200 Bar you need a 3 stage or better still a 4 stage compressor with a high quality water trap as moisture is a key enemy in PCP cylinders.

Using a 4 stage compressor is an expensive way to go as they cost several thousand dollars for a quality unit though I am told there are some from China at around a grand. Think it through and look for reviews on anything that comes out of China as I have heard mixed opinions of their ‘shoe-box’ compressor and the like when used on a PCP.

I used to own a Dive Shop and I used the German Bauer Compressors and English Bristol 4 stage Compressors, both of which are high quality but expensive. If you go the way of a compressor, I would advise using a scuba bottle to decant the air into your PCP rather than direct filling. With direct filling you have short duty cycles in filling your PCP cylinder. I feel these short filling cycles are less preferable than longer filling cycles where you top up a Scuba bottle which in turn gives multiple fills for your PCP air rifle and does so with cool air. This way you save on wear and tear and decanting time into your PCP but you have the added cost of a scuba bottle and filling kit.

I have the MDE Scuba Filling Kit (aka Charging Kit) for the 232 and similar necked scuba bottles (part#MT1483 – MDE Charger for PCP Air Rifles “A” Clamp Fitting) or the much cheaper Chinese Rhino version (part#AAN1425 Rhino PCP Valve for Scuba Charging. “A” Clamp Fitting). Both charging valves work well on PCPs. Prices can be found on my website in the PRODUCTS Drop Down Menu.

232 Bar Tank Valve Assembly

232 Bar Tank and MDE Filler

“A” Clamp Filler by MDE

Scuba Bottle 300 Bar.

If you are an avid shooter and use your PCP(s) often then I seriously suggest that you look at the 300 Bar Scuba bottles, as the additional air pressure allows for many more fills before the bottle and the cylinder pressures level out at a barely efficient 2,500 psi or thereabouts. As you guys know, the 232 Bar doesn’t take many fills before the pressure drops below 150 Bar which is the barest minimum to fill most PCP air rifle cylinders.

As I shoot more than most guys, I have a 232 Bar Bottle that I use to fill empty PCPs up to around 1,500 psi (102 Bar) then I top up using my 300 Bar Bottle. This way it allows me to run the 232 Bar down to around a 100 Bar before I get it filled resulting in fewer trips to the Dive Shop and better time management.

NOTE: Care must be taken not to fill your PCP above 200 Bar when filling cylinders with a 300 Bar bottle as the higher pressures can cause serious damage to your air rifle and possibly you if you are in the way.

For AirForce PCP owners, I have found that most of them shoot the best at 2,700 psi and so there is NO benefit it racking up the pressure above that.

The DIN Scuba Bottles are recognisable by the charging port being a female screw in type as below. The DIN Charging Valve has a deep threaded screw in coupling that will fit both sizes of DIN bottles, that is the lower 200 Bar and the higher pressure 300 Bar.

At the end of the day guys, it’s my opinion based on years of shooting air rifle PCPs that a Scuba bottle is the way to go.

300 Bar DIN Valve on Tank

300 Bar Tank with DIN Filler by MDE

Excuse the Nitrox sticker on the side as I haven’t got around to taking it off……

300 Bar DIN Filler by MDE

Hill or similar PCP Hand Pump.

Lastly there is the 3 and 4 stage Hand Pump that requires you using your body weight rather than your arms to manually cycle the pump when filling your PCP air rifle.

Tip #1. Don’t rush guys, pump steadily and take a break every few minutes to allow the pump to cool.

Tip #2. Try several different body postures and weight transfers to find one movement cycle that is more comfortable as you may well have to pump up to 200 cycles on an empty cylinder. Tiring work…

The advantage of the Hill Hand Pump Mk4 (part# HP200) is that it requires no electricity, it is portable so you can take it into the field, it’s lightweight and easy to store.

On the negative side it costs around $440 AUD at the time of writing this. Furthermore, it is tiring work when you are filling a PCP air rifle in the field especially. Those of you slight of frame or overweight may find the pump strenuous to say the least as this method is not for anyone who lacks a basic level of fitness.

Before you jump on the phone and start asking me questions about this pump, click here and download the Owners Manual that will tell you all you need to know.

Hill Pump

Summary on Filling PCPs.

PCPs do not like heat by way of hot air, as this leads to condensation and a drop in cylinder pressure as the air cools. Do not fill your PCP air rifle fast, always keep your hand near the neck of your PCP cylinder to monitor the heat. If it starts getting warm, then close off the air from the Scuba bottle or Compressor and slow the filling rate.

Tip 1. When filling a PCP try and stand on the “other” side of where the air probe or Foster connects in case a fitting or hose lets go. Trust me here guys, you wouldn’t want to be in the way….

Tip 2. Only fill your PCP with Compressed AIR and NOT Oxygen or any other gas. Stick to compressed air and the gun will do everything you need it to. Don’t try to reinvent the wheel by using some of these inert gases and mixtures. Nobody will thank you if it goes wrong.

The other thing that you PCP will not thank you for is moisture, so ensure that your compressor if you use one, has efficient water traps and dryer. If using a Scuba bottle them in all likelihood the air will be dry in your bottle as Dive Shops have stringent quality control of breathing air. When using a Hill hand pump, make sure you change the air-drying beads in the inlet manifold regularly – see manual.

Those of you new to PCP air rifle scene this may look like a lot of hard work and expensive outlay to fill your air rifle. However, I feel the Scuba method offers the cheapest and most effective way of filling your PCP air rifle, so if you are in the market for a quality PCP give me a call.

Tuning Weihrauch Air Rifles. Part 4

Tuning Weihrauch air rifles is one task that most guys skip over and if they endeavour to “tune” their springer, they seldom follow a recognised series of steps that need to be followed to the letter ( if you want the best from your gun that is). It is not a “five-minute” process and in fact, can result in pulling down a gun many times to get it right. One HW77Kthat comes to mind, took me 14 rebuilds and adjustments to reduce the group from 48mm at 30 metres down to 8mm at 30 metres. In fact, throughout the competitive life of a spring air rifle, it needs constant adjustment and resetting to get the optimum performance from it.

Weihrauch HW77KT with Race Brake.

What I am putting forward here is how I do it and there are others who are tuning Weihrauch air rifles that do it differently than myself, with each of us getting there in the end with the results we want (most of the time that is…). Tuning Weihrauch air rifles does not stop at fitting a Vortek or V-Mach kit. That is but one of the first steps and I will assume that you now have a kit in your Weihrauch HW77, HW77K or HW97K and wish to complete the tuning cycle. Tuning a HW97K will be exactly the same procedure.

Air rifles Australia wide are usually FAC classed and this tends to reduce their accuracy to a degree when put against a 12Fpe air rifles that they use in the UK.

Test Fire your air rifle.

If you have fitted the kit and assembled the rifle then you will need to check that it functions correctly. So take extra care loading the gun and placing your digits in the loading port, should the trigger let go, it will hurt I reckon. You need to test the bear trap works while holding the loading arm down (do NOT let go of it…) and then you need to test the safety while pointing the air rifle at a backstop capable of trapping a pellet.

Fast forward here. Let us assume that the assembly went well, the bear trap works, you haven’t lost any fingers and the safety works well. Now set up a target at no more than 20 metres as we are but testing the rifle, not competing yet.

At this point, I usually put through 20 or so shots using H&N Baracudas and pepper the target. The reason I put through 20 shots is that the grouping tends to change after a few shots as the rifle seal beds in and the spring develops a ‘set’ etc. 20 shots will give you a good idea of how it groups and feels and will allow you to re-zero the scope.

Then with a new target, I put 10 shots into it recording the speeds, energies, extreme spread and standard deviation. This gives you a benchmark to start tuning. If you do not have a chronograph and you can’t borrow one, then rely on your grouping and follow along.

Tuning Weihrauch air rifles: Pellet Selection Testing

Know this, the perfect pellet does not exist that suits every air rifle, period. You would have a better chance of finding Keyser Söze than the perfect pellet, so don’t bother looking.

At this point I get out a good cross-section of pellets, sometimes as many as 15 or more types, to put through the air rifle to find a suitable match for the gun. You need to understand that every air rifle is different and each gun has its own “DNA” for want of a term, so now you need to find which pellet type performs the best.

Next put in 10 shots per target without changing your point of aim (POA) so that you can compare the trajectory of each pellet in your gun. Shooting only 3 pellets into a target does not give you the grouping, but 10 pellets do give you a good idea of where it’s at.

I generally narrow it down to between 6 and 10 pellet types, finally selecting the one with the tightest group. Which pellet this is, only testing will decide.

Tip #1. When aiming at the target I zero in on the circle in the centre of the 5 in a 6-circle target or the centre of the 9 in a 10-circle target – see image below. Aim small and miss small, aim large and miss greatly. I set the scope so that the pellets hit the bull (hopefully) below my POA. If you aim at the bull, it is fairly large, and you need to judge the centre which is harder to do that placing the reticle on a small circle. Then if you do hit the bull, the resultant damage to the bull with multiple shots makes judging the centre more difficult. You can always move the Point of Impact around the target with your scope settings.

Air rifle targets in Green and Red.

Black and white air rifle targets.

When you have found a pellet that is grouping well, then you can move onto getting it to group even better.

Your selected pellet type.

At this point, I will use the H&N Baracuda Hunter as the “best” pellet in this exercise. This pellet supposedly weighs in at 18.21 grains for a .22 calibre pellet. However, if you weigh a bunch of these pellets using a digital jewellery scale that can measure down to .01 grains, you will find that these pellets can weigh anything from 18.10 to 18.30 and in-between.

To start the selection process so you can drill down and find the best weight for this pellet, you need to first inspect each pellet, yup, each individual pellet. Skip this process and you may as well fast forward to the end of this article.

Empty a few of tins of H&N Baracuda Hunter (in this example only) onto a soft towelling material and carefully pick up each pellet and inspect it for dents around the nose and more importantly, around the skirt. The pellet skirts are thinner and more prone to being deformed through rough handling and transport.

Place in one pile all the ‘good’ pellets and put the failed ones away from this process. Once I have around 200+ ‘good’ pellets I then wash them, 50 at a time, in a plastic jar with a sponge base so that the pellets do not get crushed. I use acetone and a 1” paint brush and gently brush the pellets around the bottom for half a minute or so. I then empty them into a plastic sieve and wash them under hot water, finally drying them in soft towelling.

Tip#2. Check that the sponge, plastic jar and paint brush can withstand Acetone by using a small amount as a trial.

Tip#3. Some guys use washing detergent instead of Acetone that works well too. Safer by a long shot but it needs closer inspection to see that no remaining manufacturing compound still remains on the pellets.

The idea of washing the pellets is to remove any factory added preservatives, anti-oxidants or lubrication necessary for the manufacturing process. I have seen some pellets with visible amounts of a “wax-like” compound in and around the skirts.

Once you have washed and dried your pellets you then need to weigh them on your digital weighing scale. I usually end up with up to 5 piles of pellets of different weights, that is +/- .02 grains.

Further Pellet Selection.

In the next step, you need to arm yourself with pen and notebook and set up ready to test each individual pellet pile. Start with either the heaviest or lightest and fire 10 shots noting the speeds and groups obtained. Then work your way through the individual piles of pre-weighed pellets and you should find that a particular weight works best, giving you the best group.

Now do NOT expect to get marksmanship results doing this as it is only one brick in the tuning wall and there are more bricks to lay, so to speak.

I then record the best, next best and third group by pellet weight. Following this, I lube some of these pellets with Dry Lube sprayed onto a fine sponge and I lightly rub them around to cover them. Do not drown the pellets with dry lube but let the sponge transfer sufficient lube to do the trick. Only do 10 pellets of each of the three best-performing weights.

I then shoot 10 shots using one group and record the results. Then fire 5 un-lubed pellets through the gun before shooting the next 10 best performing pellets. Repeat this until you have fired all 30 lubed pellets followed in-between each group with 5 un-lubed pellets. You should see a difference in grouping at this stage and if you don’t, then repeat the process using a different lube like a varying viscosity of silicone.

You can actually buy pellet lube, with 2 customers of mine in Brisbane, Tony and Allan, swearing by it. Below are 2 sets of images before and after with lube on the pellets much like I have done above but using a branded pellet lube called Napier Pellet Lube. There are others and a Google search will identify them but getting them here in Australia is another issue. You need to follow through if you are into improving accuracy in an air rifle that does not perform.

Unlubed Shots

Lubed Shots

Unlubed Shots

Lubed Shots

Target Images Courtesy of Allan Ruffolo, Brisbane, Qld.

Napier Pellet Lube

The next step.

OK, so if you have followed this process up to this point, you should have increased the accuracy of your air rifle by some small margin. Now if you want to go further and tighten the group some more, you need to alter your pellet speed.

This can be done by first stripping the air rifle and adding some shims to the spring and then firing 3 groups of your best-performing pellets with the best performing lube (or no lube as the case may be). If the groups tighten, then add another couple of shims and so on. If the groups do not tighten or in fact get larger, then you need to remove any default shims that are in place and reshoot the gun. When you run out of shims you will need to shorten the spring bit by bit or replace it with a softer spring. This is where a lot of air rifle accuracy problems start and end.

I have had to take off 1½ coils on one gun I tuned to bring the groups down to a competitive level, so you can now see that guns, springs, barrels and pellets etc., all vary considerably. The reduction in spring pressure obviously reduces the pellet speed, but more importantly, it reduces the recoil too, hence the addition of spring guides in tuning kits. There are exceptions to this, as in all spring gun tuning. I have cut off 2 coils on a spring and the pellet speed increased! The accuracy also increased, why? Most likely the spring was too long to begin with and was spiralling when under compression. Reduce the spring length and you reduce spiralling under pressure, hence you increase the efficiency and spring rate.

You need to record the weather temperature and humidity if you want to get really serious here as humidity and temperature play a big part in pellet performance. Now I can just hear the ‘naysayers’ rumbling in the background. Well do this if you do not believe me:

Record your best consistent grouping along with the ambient temperature and humidity.

Then on another day when it is either hotter or colder shoot the group again with the same pellets. Point made.

We have found that when you sort your pellets into 5 groups after weighing them and final testing, that you get different results according to the climate. In fact, I have noted with one springer, on a cold day it performed better with a different pellet altogether. So, do not be surprised if you find your results kind of ‘fluid’ and forever changing, hence the need to document your tuning to make sense of it all so you can stay in front.

In another article, I will cover resizing pellets and give examples of temp/humidity changes to grouping results as this article is getting a bit long at this point.

Tuning Weihrauch air rifles summary.

Before you race off and start tuning your air rifle, you need to be able to demonstrate to yourself that you are at least a fairly competent shooter. If you can’t hit a barn while standing inside one or your shooting is erratic at best, then no amount of tuning is going to help. Your air rifle should have a good quality scope on it like a Hawke Airmax or one of the up and coming MTC scopes, as these sights handle springers well. Those of you who are into tuning Weihrauch air rifles, you need to have a benchmark of what you are capable of doing target wise, PRIOR to embarking on an air rifle tuning exercise.